Posted - 06/03/2013 : 20:00:46 Wow. What a brilliant game plan and execution by the Bruins the first two games. For a casual observer, the game would seem boring, I see nothing but brilliance. They've somehow made (arguably) two of the best players in the game look pedestrian.

Remember how Nik Lidstrom plays for Detroit? The way he makes the game look so easy and simple and easy it is boring. The way Boston is playing right now is Lidstrom. Absolute brilliance.

18 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)

Guest4350

Posted - 06/18/2013 : 08:28:59 Not quite as easy as the Pitts series but I sense trouble for the Hawks.

Guest4049

Posted - 06/08/2013 : 12:29:15 Chicago can beat Boston like I was thinking Pittsburgh was do this.

Chicago adapt his play to his opponent and had 4 lines and a more balanced defense than the Pinguins.

Crawford better than Rask, I doubt of it!

Guest9808

Posted - 06/08/2013 : 08:46:15 Wow. Unbelievable. Someone would have made a load of cash to if they bet on a Bruins sweep. At least the last 2 games were competitive unlike the joke that was the first two games.

If Boston keeps this up don't know how they can be beat.

Alex116

Posted - 06/07/2013 : 20:30:12 Crazy! Absolutely crazy! Not just the sweep, not just the 0 points for Crosby / Malkin, not just the play of Rask, not just the 2 total goals for the Pens.......EVERYTHING! That's a series result i'd say very few predicted! Heck, i'd venture to guess that anyone who did predict that, was a Bruins fan feeling overconfident. The person(s) i'm interested in, is anyone who actually wagered a few dollars on a Bruins sweep!!!

Job well done by Boston and it seems almost absurd that they were OH SO CLOSE to being out in round 1 (sorry Leafers). Looking back though, it makes that ridiculous 3rd period, game 7 comeback, just that much more unbelievable!!!

Kudos to the Bruins. I still hate ya, but their accomplishments are well deserved!

Guest4377

Posted - 06/07/2013 : 19:42:45 It's all over for the flightless bird! Penguins may mate for life, and while this may be an admirable trait for proponents of monogamy, hockey is a game of scoring. :)

Two goals in four games is not enough by any stretch. Two goals in an entire playoff series is ridiculous!

It's not quite a record - the Wild actually only scored one goal when they were swept by the Ducks in 2003 - but that was the Jacques Lemaire led Minnesota team in the early 2000's. The Penguins are an offensive team with way more firepower than any team Minnesota has ever iced!

And for Crosby and Malkin to go pointless for four games in a row (together)at any time is not only unprecedented. It's absolutely hard to believe!

Guest4377

Posted - 06/07/2013 : 19:34:22 It's all over for the flightless bird! Penguins may mate for life, and while this may be an admirable trait for proponents of monogamy, hockey is a game of scoring. :)

Two goals in four games is not enough by any stretch. Two goals in an entire playoff series is ridiculous!

It's not quite a record - the Wild actually only scored one goal when they were swept by the Ducks in 2003 - but that was the Jacques Lemaire led Minnesota team in the early 2000's. The Penguins are an offensive team with way more firepower than any team Minnesota has ever iced!

And for Crosby and Malkin to go pointless for four games in a row (together)at any time is not only unprecedented. It's absolutely hard to believe!

Guest4049

Posted - 06/07/2013 : 10:41:27 In first and second round Pittsburgh beats Ottawa and NY Islanders. Two hard working teams but weak compared with the Pinguins.

I was thinking Boston will be a very tough team to beat. Boston is now 3-0 and I flabbergasted with the way he control the game (Lidstrom way's is a good comparo).

The old rule say: the best goalie in best team win the cup is good again this year !

After the exploding marathon and the slogan Boston Strong. I think this town and particulary this hockey team is really Strong.

I can't wait for a original six final between Chicago and Boston...

Guest4178

Posted - 06/06/2013 : 12:57:26 I just checked Sidney Crosby's game log, and the last time he went three games without a point goes all the way back to November 2009!

Crosby is only one player on the team (pretty big piece though), so you can't completely blame him for Pittsburgh being down 3-0 to the Bruins in this series. I actually think he's playing well. He looked absolutely driven to score in overtime last night, but no luck.

Scoring points is a bit like getting wins sometimes. A player can do all the right things and go pointless for a stretch, and other times, the puck finds a way in the net.

Goaltending is the big difference in this series. (Not the only reason the Bruins are up 3-0, but Rask is playing out of his mind.) He's faced 110 shots and stopped all but two, giving him a save percentage of .981 for the series so far. The Penguins are 88/99, which isn't terrible (.889) – they just need to score more goals, and this comes right back to Rask.

I think the Penguins are done, but if you're looking for signs of hope, the Bruins (Providence in the AHL) were up 3-0 in their series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (that's a mouthful), and the minor league affiliated Penguins came back to win in game 7!

The Duke

Posted - 06/06/2013 : 12:21:01 All great posts and good reading, good job every1.

there certainly is a fine line between winning and losing. Picking the bruins to win this series is one thing but predicting them to destroy pitt. in the first 2 games is something else.....i don`t think any1 seen this happening.

Is Malkin pointless in 3 games ?....Crosby next to nothing.....along with their supporting cast, no scoring from any1 ??.....losing is 1 thing but these players usually put up numbers, and good ones.

Alex116

Posted - 06/06/2013 : 11:49:12

quote:Originally posted by Guest4178I think there's a fine line between winning and losing in the playoffs, and the teams are so close, that a break here or there, a hot goalie (or a not so hot goalie on the other side), etc., etc. can make the difference between winning and losing.

I cherry picked this one comment from your post 4178, but the entire post was great. I've always agreed with this "fine line". I've often said how looking back in history, there are 4-0 sweeps that were a lot closer than they may look in the record books today. That Blues / Kings series is an example of sorts. While it did go 7, it could have easily gone 4 and had the potential to be 4 straight 2-1 games. I'm not saying the Sharks sweep of the Canucks was an example of this of course.

Guest2483

Posted - 06/05/2013 : 13:36:59 Actually there is a way they could, just ask Philly. I think they would tell them to knock Krecji out of the series. It is the same goaltender in nets.

Guest4178

Posted - 06/05/2013 : 13:05:03 I have to give you credit for picking Boston in this series Joshua, and as you say, a prediction you made before this series began.

I don't think you (or anyone else) would have predicted such decisive wins for the Bruins in the first two games of the series (and on Penguins home ice), outscoring Pittsburgh 9-1 in these two games.

I took a look at Slozo's "pick em" thread, and of seven people who submitted their third round picks (all who qualified to do so, by being the most successful with their picks in the first and second rounds), and all but one picked the Penguins to beat the Bruins. And the poster (Mandree) who picked the Bruins predicted it would go to seven games.

I also checked out another thread (8 down, 8 to go), where the original poster suggested that the Penguins were going to trounce the Bruins, and there was nary an objection to this assertion.

I didn't participate in Slozo's "pick em" game, but if I'm being honest, I would have picked the Penguins.

And hey, they're not out of it yet, but if I were a betting man, I would change my bet to the Bruins. While statistics don't win games (or series), I heard that when a team loses their first two games at home, there's a less than 8% chance they will come back and win the series.

The odds do not look good for the Penguins, but to me, the key game is tonight. If the Penguins win, they have momentum (and their confidence back), and they're only down two games to one. But if they lose, the series is over. There's no way the Bruins could lose four games in a row!

JOSHUACANADA

Posted - 06/05/2013 : 12:41:42 They say the first round is always the hardest. The difference's of playing varying teams on any given night, having to adjust nightly to different coaching styles and rosters. Over an 82 game season, teams, like players, go hot an cold, as the emotion level is hard to maintain, especially when you are locked to a playoff position and the teams you are playing are still fighting for a playoff spot. Some teams like Washington come in hot just to make the playoffs and others come in cold like Boston having secured a playoff spot weeks before and the emotion level is lower. The 1st round is a crap shoot, but as I predicted Boston, if woke up, would be the beast in the east. Didn't happen last year early enough.

"I now realise that the Toronto Maple Leafs, Canada's finest hockey team, is better than the Ottawa Senators - and always will be. PS - LOVE that Dion Phaneuf! "

Guest4178

Posted - 06/05/2013 : 09:44:41 One minor correction (not that it's a significant point), but I think it was Frattin who missed the breakaway opportunity in the third period for the Leafs. I think Bozak did not actually play in game seven.

Guest4178

Posted - 06/05/2013 : 09:35:40 Joshua – I don't disagree at all with your assessment of the Bruins, especially after their play in the first two games of the Eastern finals.

How you describe the Bruins is probably no differently than how a lot of people would have described the Bruins two years ago when they won the cup. I don't think the team has changed too dramatically since two years ago, except for in net, where Rask has proven to be as good as Tim Thomas for the Bruins since taking over the number one role.

So if the team is very similar to the team which won the cup two seasons ago, what happened last year, where they were knocked out in the first round? And the team which beat them (the Caps) went on to lose to the Rangers, who went on to lose to the Devils, who went on to lose to the Kings.

I think there's a fine line between winning and losing in the playoffs, and the teams are so close, that a break here or there, a hot goalie (or a not so hot goalie on the other side), etc., etc. can make the difference between winning and losing.

Getting back to when the Bruins won the cup in 2011, it's easy to forget how close they were to not getting past the first round of the playoffs. In this series (vs. Montreal), it went to game seven, and the game was not decided until overtime.

I'm not taking anything away from the Bruins cup win in 2011, but it's important to note that a bounce here or a an inch there (post and in the net, rather than post and out), and Montreal comes out the winner instead of Boston.

And skipping ahead to this year's playoffs, the Bruins were very close to being knocked out of the playoffs by the Leafs. I give them credit for coming back from a 4-1 deficit in the third period to win game seven in overtime, but if the Leafs player scores on his breakaway (was it Bozak?), it's 5-1, and game over (season over) for the Bruins.

I know this is playing the "what if" game, but I have a hard time believing one team in demonstrably better than another team in the Stanley Cup finals. It's been this way for about a decade now, and it's well proven that a lower seed team can beat a higher seed team, and that finishing first in your conference does not significantly translate into success in the playoffs.

And getting back to the subject at hand, I agree that the Bruins are making it look "easy" right now with their two lopsided wins over the Penguins. And while they may continue with their dominance over the Penguins, I think this series is far from over. I just don't believe the Bruins are that much better than the Penguins, but I'm prepared to be proven wrong! :)

JOSHUACANADA

Posted - 06/05/2013 : 08:53:54 I seen this coming and have talked about it in the prior posts. Boston is built for this time of year. The came in a little flat from the regular season's end, got shocked by Toronto and woke up. No offense to the New York Islanders or Pittsburg, but run and gun offense is great during the regular season when your opponent only gets a small look at you. The Bruins are built for this time of year. They have the total package of team defense, 4 good lines who excel at 2way play and deep on defense. There goalie looks stellar and have the depth of players to cover both of the Penguins top 2 lines in a shutdown role. Boston can score from all 4 lines and keying certain players or lines will not stop Boston from scoring. Boston from the Defense out is built to take advantage of turnover's. Pittsburg, although playing great against weaker teams, makes plenty of mistakes when playing from behind on the scoreboard. Key to beating Pittsburg is score first and win defensive zone faceoffs. Pittsburg can't out muscle and hustle the Bruins, like they did with Ottawa who tried but didn't have the experience and discipline the Bruins have. Basically Boston is everything I want my team to be in future years.

Then again its only 2 games in and a lot can happen.

"I now realise that the Toronto Maple Leafs, Canada's finest hockey team, is better than the Ottawa Senators - and always will be. PS - LOVE that Dion Phaneuf! "

The Duke

Posted - 06/04/2013 : 20:08:39 yes guest, i don`t think many people seen this coming.....no dis-respect to the bruins ( they do have a great team ) but to handle pitt so easily, so far, must even make them wonder.

The pens look lost, they just can`t seem to do anything right and any mistake, its a Boston goal.

Goal-tending may be somewhat of an issue for the pens but it certainly doesn`t affect the pens scoring woes.

T. Rask certainly does look like the real deal...damn J. F. J

Leafs81

Posted - 06/04/2013 : 11:54:21 Yeah Pittsburgh really needs to find a system to be able to break that out. It's not over though. A quick turnover and some momentum going Pittsburgh's way and you got yourself a series. WIth all the high end talent the Penguins has, it's only a matter of time. But the clock is ticking.